While the consumer industry is experiencing a renaissance thanks to the adoption of generative neural networks (as we discussed in our recent Equity podcast), entrepreneurs are emerging who propose using modern technology for the exact opposite purpose. Brynn Putnam, whose name made waves in the fitness industry after selling her previous startup, Mirror, to Lululemon for half a billion dollars, is returning to the scene with a new philosophy.
Last week, her new venture officially announced the closing of a $20 million Series A round. The investment was led by Union Square Ventures, with participation from well-known angel investors such as Biz Stone (co-founder of Twitter) and Tim Ferriss. The project’s concept is both simple and ambitious: it’s a “smart” gaming table designed to pull people away from their smartphones and bring them together in the real world.
The device consists of a 24-inch touchscreen in a wooden frame that recognizes physical game pieces. It is a hybrid of a board game and a video game. Essentially, Brynn Putnam created “together tech”, while the rest of the world is building “loneliness tech” — endless social media feeds and algorithms that keep users trapped in a digital bubble. The startup has already placed its devices in tens of thousands of homes, schools, and hospitals across America, and 85% of owners use it more than 30 times a month. This speaks to an incredible level of engagement in an era when keeping a user’s attention on a physical object is harder than ever.
This success reflects a global trend of 2026 that TechCrunch experts have dubbed “a return to pragmatism”. Users are tired of social media’s “killer interfaces” and crave tactile experiences. It is no coincidence that the new project announced the launch of an AI platform for game creation — this will allow users to generate new rules using text prompts, while physical interaction remains key. The funds will go toward scaling production and developing AI that helps create content, rather than replacing live communication.
From fitness mirrors to board games and video chats
In an interview with TechCrunch, Brynn Putnam brilliantly described the shift in her consumer focus: “The first device was all about me — my reflection, my performance. This new phase of my life is dedicated to family and friends”. Her journey from fitness to board games is a perfect illustration of the evolution of human needs in the digital age. While five years ago people paid for self-improvement technologies (working out with Mirror), today they pay for presence technologies (strengthening relationships with the Board).
The trend Putnam observed is confirmed by the growing popularity of video communication. In 2026, when AI learned to generate hyper-realistic deepfakes and voices, the value of genuine, live contact (“live & unscripted”) grew exponentially. The paradox: the smarter algorithms become, the more people are drawn to other people without intermediaries.
And here we see an interesting symbiosis. While the technology created by Putnam solves the problem of “how can we have fun together when we’re in the same room but everyone’s glued to their phones”, the video chat industry solves the problem of “how can we meet up when we live in different cities or even countries”. Today, video communication is experiencing a renaissance — not as a boring way to “call Mom,” but as a way to “meet people by chance and have a good time”. Thousands of startups in Silicon Valley are now working to make video calls as natural and fun as playing a board game at a real table. The creators of smart tables are moving toward physical contact, while video chat developers are moving toward emotional authenticity, but they share a single goal: combating digital loneliness.
Video Chat as the New “Live Club”: Why Randomness Is Becoming the Main Feature of 2026
While some companies are building expensive smart tables for living rooms, others have taken a more obvious but no less effective path — they’ve reinvented the video chat genre. Remember the early days of Chatroulette: it was chaos, facepalms, and 90% inappropriate content. The technologies of 2026 (computer vision, LLM-based moderation, and low-latency 5G/Starlink connections) have transformed video communication into a safe and engaging environment.
This year’s biggest trend is themed video chats with “smart roulette”. No more random connections without context. Today, algorithms can connect strangers based on shared interests, current mood (read from facial expressions, of course, with the user’s consent), or the desired type of interaction — from flirting to solving puzzles together.
And here, we must mention Flirtify, a service that represents a new frontier in the video chat industry. Unlike traditional dating apps, where communication boils down to messaging and endlessly swiping through profiles (Tinder, Bumble), Flirtify focuses on direct video-random matching with advanced AI-based moderation. Users are randomly connected via webcam — this brings online communication as close as possible to meeting someone in person at a bar or a concert.
Why does it work? Psychologists call this the “train effect”: when you don’t choose a conversation partner based on a photo but see them live right away, your level of bias drops sharply, and your level of spontaneity rises. Flirtify capitalizes on the trend toward authenticity. Users are tired of photoshopped profiles and staged stories. They want to see their conversation partner’s reaction right here and now: their smile, a pause in the conversation, their laughter. In the age of generative AI, a genuine, unretouched smile in real time is becoming the main currency in the world of dating.
Why Investors Are Paying Millions for “Boring” Communication Technologies
A look at venture capital reports for the first quarter of 2026 reveals a surprising picture. Investments in pure “virtual reality” (VR headsets, metaverses) have fallen by 40% compared to the peak of 2023–2024. Meanwhile, funding in the “Real-life interaction tech” category has grown by 200%.
Analysts at Union Square Ventures explained this simply in their blog: “People are social animals. Technology should help us come together, not replace the presence of another person. Venture investors naively believed we would live in The Matrix, but it turns out we just need a quality break from screens”.
The startup Brynn Putnam built AI into a game board not to replace players with virtual bots, but to prompt rules, keep score, and generate new challenges. This is using AI as a communication assistant, not a disruptor. Similarly, video chat platforms like Flirtify use machine learning to filter out toxic content and suggest conversation topics (“icebreakers”), but they never replace the person you’re talking to.
The future we’ll see in two or three years is a hybrid. Imagine this: you log into a video chat, switch to “board game” mode, and the AI connects you with three other people who happen to have an hour to spare. You play a digital version of a card game on the screen, but you can see your partners’ real faces. Putnam’s smart table, connected to the internet, could stream your face to an identical table in another city, creating a “through-the-table” effect. The $20 million investment is a bet that even in the midst of the digital revolution, the scarcest commodities will remain human attention, a genuine smile, and an awkward pause in conversation. And while some are building android robots, smart money is flowing to where technology helps us learn to talk to each other again.
Joseph Quinn is a writer at Freakbob Blog who covers internet trends, viral memes, technology guides, lifestyle topics, and helpful general articles. He carefully researches each topic before writing to ensure the information is accurate, clear, and useful for readers. His goal is to create simple, well-researched, and easy-to-understand content that helps people stay informed about online trends, digital culture, and everyday topics.